Father
by mocabela

Comment:

Originally posted by ThingFish: Did you look at the site and the photo I gave a link to? Here is the link to the Guru's official site. It's just that your father resembles him in a way facially. Your father looks such a happy man, so content and with such a beautiful happy smile. The guru was revered and loved by many in his lifetime. I just thought it might interest you to know of this man. Your dad's actually got a much nicer smile then what the guru displays in his photo's. //neemkarolibaba.com/

You're right - there is definitely similarity throughout the face (and they have the same ears). My father has an amazing amount of strength (in every way the word can be taken) and I think this comes through as a visible part of his character. While he is no guru, he is an inspiring man - he has beaten cancer twice, never complained, and was back to work within a week or two. Despite that, he has never been afraid to cry when something affects him emotionally. He's one of those people who just *is* - no inconsistency, no question.

Thanks for the links - very interesting!

Father
by mocabela

Comment:
Several people remarked about the eyes being dark - if you look very closely you will see that there's a good reason for this: his eyes are closed. The shadow you see is his eyelashes, which are long and lovely (and I inherited them, happily); my father does not have very wide eyes to begin with. I think the closed eyes and the expression show his personality very well.

This is a candid shot, not a classic portrait; in any case, I do not have lighting equipment, even if I had set up this shot, which I did not. It was taken in the dining room of my house, which makes it fairly well lit under the circumstances. The lighting is all natural light, and there is a large plate glass window behind and to the side of him, which is the reason why it is whited out; this is also the only real source of illumination for the picture.

Thanks for the comments.

Windows to the Soul
by mocabela

Comment:
Well... I guess I'm surprised then.

Dreams Come True
by mocabela

Comment:
I'm kinda surprised that nobody saw sailing (I use the word loosely) off into a tropical paradise sunset as success.

G N A W
by RKT

Comment:
I gave this a ten... love it. Beautiful work.. can't believe it did so poorly.

LLOYD STREET
by WaysOfSeeing

Comment:
Awesome exposure. I'd love to see a little grain in this... but I'm sure I'm in the minority. Great job on that tonal range. Judging by your portfolio, you're very strong with b&w, and that makes me happy. Congrats on the ribbon!

Great and Small (Ansel Adams Tribute)
by Tallbloke

Comment:
This is absolutely stunning. There's nothing about this that I would change... amazing black and white work.

Rebel
by gaurawa

Comment:
So glad this ribboned... I absolutely love this shot.

Edit: typos :)

Message edited by author 2005-10-31 00:46:28.

Riding the Waves
by mocabela

Comment:

Originally posted by missinseattle: Is that Cannon Beach by any chance? I grew up going to the OR coast every summer and see in your profile you are from OR. We spent most of our time in Lincoln City.

It's actually further south, in Bandon... that's a bit south of Coos Bay, so figure around 230 miles from Cannon Beach :) There's a lot of pretty, rocky coastline in Oregon, though.

Black-eyed Susans
by drydoc

Comment:
First of all, this shot has some good potential - the flowers are nicely in focus, and the diagonal line adds interest to the shot; where this photograph loses the viewer, however, is in the colour. The white balance is pretty significantly off - you definitely need to go warmer with this one if you're going to stay with colour; the vividness of the yellow colour against the gloom of the backdrop would be very effective if the yellow shade were corrected. Alternatively, this would look great in black and white. For this particular challenge, I'm not really seeing a lot of good grain - there is some colour noise that is more of a detriment than anything else in the greens - again, I would recommend colour correction or desaturation. In this case, the grain doesn't add to the mood, because it is not a true, all-over grain. I do like the composition/crop, however, and with a tish of sharpening this would be as clear as you could want. Colour work is really all this needs. Good luck!